The inventive concepts disclosed herein relate generally to the field of navigation systems. More particularly, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein relate to systems and methods for avoidance traversal with cost-based flight plan routing.
An aircraft navigation system may determine a flight path between two geographic locations to minimize travel distance, travel time, fuel usage, etc. The flight path may involve an avoidance, which may relate to turbulence, inclement weather, flight restrictions, and other events the aircraft operator may wish to avoid. An avoidance may be associated with one or more severity levels. For example, an avoidance associated with turbulence may have a severity level associated with each of light turbulence, moderate turbulence, and severe turbulence. It may be desirable to travel a distance through an avoidance depending on, for example, the type of avoidance and/or a severity level associated with the avoidance.
A navigation system may classify an avoidance area as traversable or non-traversable. This classification creates a binary representation of a continuous range of avoidances with varying severities. An aircraft operator will decide whether an avoidance will be avoided or disregarded. The aircraft operator may configure the navigation system to generate a flight path accordingly.